Fallout: Shattered Liberty
by Stormasius
Summary: A bounty hunter that roams the empire wasteland saves a young girl from being eaten by cannibal raiders. He makes it his mission to protect her, along with making caps by turning in criminals of course. Dead or Alive.


**Fallout: Shattered Liberty**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own fallout or any of its licenses.**

The vibrant glow of the sun peered over the horizon, illuminating the city ruins of the manhattan island and the chaos that surrounded it. Along the largely intact bridge ran many makeshift structures as if someone had created a settlement along the entryway, securing an ideal spot in any trade route to the city. A few miles further along the roads sat another settlement that seemed to be built from the remains of a suburb. Cars from a nearby freeway were stacked up to create walls for the protection of the town and many people from all walks of life were going about their morning routine.

As part of the vibrant centre of the town, close to the market, sat an old world bar, It had a rusty sign on the front of it titling it 'The tradesman's drink' It was slow business as usual for the establishment this early in the day yet a new customer entered the bar and took a seat and dropped his bag by the stool. He took off a dust mask before letting out a sigh. He must've been in his mid twenties. The man had a scar running diagonally along his mouth and the edge of his cheek. He had green eyes and rough brown hair that was rather messy. He had a rough stubble that was subtle but visible from the light that peered through the cracks in the building. He wore a suit of combat armour that had an urban camouflage green tone to it. Over this he wore a lighter green long coat. Atop his head was a green cap, the same as his coat, this was accompanied by a pair of dusty shades that were placed atop the hat.

A large man, his head shaved and a murderous glint in his eye, walked over to him. He was wearing some light armour, probably some kind of leather, and he seemed like a mercenary or troublemaker of some kind. He wore an annoyed frown and played with a kitchen knife he had in his hand.

"Hey you! I don't like you." The mercenary told the other. "You know what happens when I don't like someone? They get stabbed." He informed the man.

"I know who you are mr. John Chambers. You're a dangerous man, and a wanted criminal. All of your victims are stabbed to death and the only reason you're still here is that the town fears for their lives too much. If they knew they could get rid of you without my help, you would've been dead a long time ago. So tell me, which way do you want it to go down? We can do it the easy way and nobody gets hurt or we can do this the hard way and someone is gonna lose the feeling in their hand." The militaristic man informed the outlaw.

"How about we do this the hard way and… You die!" He lunged towards the man still sitting at the bar.

He quickly twisted his body out of the way to avoid the knife and proceeded to strike John's arm so that he would let go of the knife. As soon as he did, the man picked it up and stabbed it straight through the back of the outlaw's right hand which was resting on the bar. John let out a wince of pain as the man proceeded to armbar his free hand and then rip the knife out before tying the two arms together.

"Ask for the hard way and you get hurt. Simple." He told the outlaw before kicking him down to the ground. He retrieved his duffle bag from the side of the seat and pulled the brute up. "I think Silverton is gonna benefit from getting rid of you." He whispered to the outlaw as he guided him outside.

One short trip a few buildings over and the two men entered a large building with four cells in it. One holding cell and three regular cells. A door led to a small office, a faded star was displayed on the door. Soon enough a young man came out from a side door leading to another room. He headed over and gave a small wave to the man in green.

"Hi there, we didn't expect you to be back so quick Tom. The sheriff is out by the stage with a couple other residents reading the noose, he'll be back soon. I guess you want your caps though." The young deputy tossed over a cloth bag with a string around it. "Three hundred, just like the sheriff promised." He finished.

The man now known as Tom shoved the bound outlaw over to the deputy. "Pleasure doing business with you. Give the sheriff my regards, as soon as I'm restocked, I'll be heading off to bridgeville, not the most ingenious of names but it's worth visiting for jobs." He told the officer.

"Well good luck, and don't forget to stop by if you ever return, we can always use an extra hand, especially with the kind of results you get." He told him, mildly joking at just how good he was. To. Gave a nod and walked out

After resupplying, Tom walked out of the entrance of Silverton which appeared to be a shipping container with two guards at the doors on either side, the place didn't lack security, it just lacked the confidence to stand up to men like John Chambers. A small rusty sign was propped up atop the container. "Silverton, where caps are made." Tom figured it was from an old nuka cola plant somewhere in the ruins. He turned towards the city and started walking, his backpack heavy with goods and ammo. A rifle was clipped onto the bag ready to be used in an instant. As he walked, the flap of his coat flew back to reveal a worn pistol wrapped tightly in its holster.

He walked a mile or two before he crouched behind some rocks. He could hear voices up ahead and could see the smoke coming off of a still burning fire. Peering over he saw three figures. Two seemed to be raiders, their armour a makeshift of leather, pointed shrapnel and punk spikes. One had a warhawk and his face was painted red with what looked to be blood. The other was bald, his face was painted with a white substance to look like a skull. Lying on the ground was a young girl in a ragged dress. Must've been about ten. She had long brunette hair and appeared to have brown eyes, he was too far away to see for certain. She had her knees pressed to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She had a sad expression on her face, must've killed her family in front of her.

He pulled out his rifle and shot the raider with the warhawk in the head, the bullet went straight through his head and killed him instantly. Tom shouldered his rifle and pulled out a sawed off shotgun. He charged at the raider who was fumbling for what appeared to be a butter knife, clearly he was the incompetent of the two. Tom took the time to take aim and shoot the man in the kneecaps. Each time the raider let out an agonising scream. Tom walked over and gave him a kick in the ribs.

"Hey there asshole. Mind telling me what you and your buddy here were up to, if you do I'll kill you quickly, if not, I'll leave you here to bleed out and have a slow and painful death." Tom informed the agonised raider.

"We, we were...slavers...for a time. We were stuck in no man's land north of here and most either died from lack of food or became food…" He coughed up blood.

"And the girl over there?" Tom asked, pointing at the terrified youth, still holding her legs tightly.

"We...came across a family a few weeks ago...they were escaping something when we jumped them...we've been eating to surprise ever since… and she was next…" He coughed up more blood. Tom shook his head from hearing this.

"Sick bastards… I guess that you did what you had to to survive, it doesn't excuse the act though. Whatever faith you have, whatever god you have. Hope they take pity on you because if it was up to me you would suffer a fate worse than death. See you in hell." He aimed the shotgun at the man's head and blew it to smithereens and blood and flesh scattered over the scorched earth.

Tom took the time to search the bodies and the camp for anything of value. Once he had done this, he walked over to the still petrified girl, then he squatted down to try and comfort her.

"Hey there. I'm sorry for what these men did, it was horrible. They can't hurt you any more though. This must be a shock to you, this past week. Just wish I intercepted them sooner. Maybe saved a few more lives." He gave a sigh. "My name is Tom. Do you have one?" He gave a half smile at the girl.

She looked up at him and managed to force out a word. "Sofia." She said with a shy tone. She was still tense but relieved that her captors were dead.

"Well Sofia. Stick with me kid and you'll be fine. I couldn't save anyone else but I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He held out his hand.

"Promise?" She asked him, studying his face.

"I promise." He told her. In truth it wasn't gonna be easy, but he would die trying if he had to. He kept his hand held out before feeling it being clasped by sofia's.

He pulled himself up and helped the girl up to her feet too. She was holding back some tears, finally being rescued from those animals. Her thoughts strayed to her lost family. Maybe in time she could find a new one. For now she would stay under the watchful protection of her guardian angel, even if he himself wasn't that holy. He pulled out his rifle and began walking in the direction of the ruined city once more. He turned his head to face her.

"You coming, kid?" He asked as he nodded for her to follow along. With that she sprinted to catch up with Tom who was walking at a steady pace. The world may be hell right now but he had finally found a purpose that was greater than looking out for himself, even if it did clean up the wastes in the process. For now though, protecting Sofia was his only goal.

|Shattered Liberty|

 **Hey readers, Stormasius here, or Storm for short. I wrote this a while back and was unsatisfied with the end of the first chapter so I ended up basically rewriting it based on what I wanted it to become. This is the first fic for fallout I have done and I'll be likely putting this out on weekends or whenever I have free time.**

 **So tell me what you thought of the chapter and story and leave a review and give me any tips for future writing in this genre. Thanks for reading this and I hope you'll continue doing so. I'll see you in the next chapter.**


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